Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely related to how we open to the truth of impermanence. This talk examines how our ways of trying to control life solidify our perception of being separate and threatened. We then look at the wings of mindful presence and compassion that open us to loss and grief, and reveal the loving awareness that is beyond birth and death.

In this interview Rupert Spira answers questions related to realization, individual character, mistaken projections onto spiritual teachers and more. Some of the questions discussed are: Is personal development necessary for realization? and Does awareness need an individual mind to know itself?

This interview is featured in the “Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol.4”.

From an early age Rupert was deeply interested in the nature of Reality. For twenty years he studied the teachings of Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta and Robert Adams, until he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, twelve years ago. Francis introduced Rupert to the teaching of Jean Klein, Parmenides, Wei Wu Wei and Atmananda Krishnamenon and, more importantly, directly indicated to him the true nature of experience.

Rupert’s first book is “The Transparency of Things”, subtitled “Contemplating the Nature of Experience”. His second book, Presence Volume I The Art of Peace and Happiness and Presence Volume II The Intimacy of All Experience has been currently released by Non-Duality Press.

Wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, the collapse of the wave function, and entanglement all point to awareness being an intrinsic aspect of reality. Yet we are still trying to understand them in terms of a worldview that believes the real world to be that
of space, time, and matter, and relegates consciousness to some artifact of brain processes.

Yet the one thing of which we are certain is that we are aware. And it is the one thing the current worldview cannot account for. is profound anomaly will ultimately lead to the full paradigm shift to which contemporary physics is, unwittingly, pointing.

With consciousness as primary, everything remains the same and everything changes. Mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry are unchanged. What changes is our assumption as to what they are describing. They are not describing the unfolding of a physical world, but the unfolding of a universal self-aware field. We are led to the conclusion that the entire cosmos is a vast field of knowing, knowing itself, and in that knowing creating for itself the appearance of a material world. Why then don’t we see it that way? Why does the material world appear devoid of consciousness?

From the deep pools of Eastern wisdom, to the fast-paced rapids of the West, Peter Russell has mastered many fields, and synthesized them with consummate artistry. Weaving his unique blend of scientific rationale, global vision, and intuitive wisdom, Peter brings a sharp, critical mind to the challenge of self-awakening. The next great frontier of human exploration, he shows, is not outer space, but inner space—the development of the human mind.

He has degrees in theoretical physics, experimental psychology, and computer science from the University of Cambridge in England, and has written ten books in this area, including The Global Brain Awakens, Waking Up in Time, and most recently, From Science to God: A Physicist’s Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness.

Raised as a Catholic and educated in the West, then trained as a monk in India since the 1980s, Canadian author Swami Muktananda of Rishikesh is uniquely positioned to bring the Eastern tradition of Vedanta to Western spiritual seekers. In Awakening to the Infinite, he answers the eternal question posed by philosophical seekers, “Who am I?” with straightforward simplicity.

Based on the ancient teachings of advaita or nonduality—the understanding that, at a fundamental level, there is no division between ourselves and others—the answers in the book are drawn from the many conversations Swami has had throughout the years with individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life. Covering a range of subjects from the spiritual path to everyday problems at work and in relationships, sexuality, parenting, physical illness, and social injustice, Muktananda communicates directly and compassionately, from the standpoint of someone who is anchored in the infinite but fully in touch with the world.
SWAMI MUKTANANDA OF RISHIKESH was raised in Quebec, Canada, in a Catholic family. Drawn to the monastic life from an early age, he met his teacher, modern-day Indian saint Swami Chidananda, when he was only nine years old. After this meeting, the young Muktananda decided to dedicate his life to God.

In 2000, after studying engineering and agroeconomics and running his own company for several years, he took vows and became a monk at the Divine Life Society, founded by Swami Sivananda in 1936. He now lives at the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh, northern India, at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he teaches meditation and yoga philosophy, as well as establishing a retreat center in Canada. He also travels extensively and holds retreats in which he shares the Hindu message of nonduality that transcends all religions.